“I do.” He steps back but keeps a hand to my back until my feet touch the ground.
“I haven’t forgotten about the bike ride, Church Girl.”
He walks on, and I peek around the corner of the house, watching him stroll confidently away. He moves so easily and so gracefully as he kicks a leg over the bike, revs the engine, and takes off like a rocket.
Even with Shades out of sight, my body hums with a sensation deep in the pit of my belly, and this time I’m certain what it is.
Desire.
* * *
My legs wobbleas I step inside the front door, lean against it, and the hard cold slab helps cool my overheated body. Shades is something else, and I can feel, deep down, that I might be in trouble with this man.
He is all man, too much man, for me anyway. The things he makes me feel are way out of my comfort zone, which is scary enough, but the fact that he makes me feel them and also want to act on them? It’s a recipe for something I’m not quite sure I’m ready for.
The way my core throbs tells me that I’m already teetering on that thin line between doing what I know is right and what feels right. I pinch my knees together for a minute until the pulsing slows, but every thought of Shades increases the sensation.
“Loretta!”
I flash a sardonic smile to myself at my mother’s voice because nothing can cool the rush of desire quicker. “Coming, Mother!”
My steps are careful as I walk down the hall with a racing heart. She’d been nice to Shades, and even though it makes me a terrible person to think it, she was surprisingly nice. Mother is nice to everyone because that’s the image she wants to portray, but despite her smiles and laughs with Shades, I know better. “What’s up?”
Mother looks up at me from her spot at the small kitchen table, a glass of wine in her hand, a patient smile on her face.
“What’s up is that I’m concerned about you, Loretta.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes because I am a grown woman, and the only way to get her to treat me as one is to act like it.
“There’s no need to worry about me, Mother. I am perfectly fine.”
“You are always fine, Loretta. I am incredibly blessed to have been gifted with such a kind and obedient daughter,” she sighs. “You haven’t shown interest in many men, never mind invited them for dinner, and well, let’s just say that Shades isn’t what I was expecting.”
Obedient, as if I’m some kind of pet. “As a child, it was my duty to obey you and Dad, and that’s what I did.” But it isn’t part of my plan going forward. “Shades and I are friends, nothing more. Because I know you worry, I invited him to dinner here at the house.” Which I now realize was a mistake.
“You will always be my child, Loretta.”
“I will always be your daughter,” I correct her with emphasis. “But I am not a child, and I am capable of making my own decisions.”
“That’s the part I’m worried about. Shades is a nice man who served his country with honor. But his body is covered in tattoos, and he rides a motorcycle, Loretta. He’s not the kind of man for you.”
I laugh even though I had the same thought upon first meeting him. I judged his book based on the cover when there’s so much more to him than muscles, tattoos, and sunglasses.
“Because he has tattoos and rides a motorcycle? What’s next, Mother? I can’t date a man who doesn’t drive a Mercedes or BMW? Only men who wear suits to work?”
She sighs, but her eyes bore into me.
“Loretta, for crying out loud. That is not what I’m saying at all. He’s a grown man who has seen and experienced more of this world, good and bad than you ever will. But yes, the tattoos and the motorcycle don’t help. He is not the man for you.”
I shake my head, completely over this conversation, which is more than a cold bucket of ice water on my lust. It’s an entire hunk of melted glacier.
“Mother, that is not for you to decide. Not anymore.”
“I am your mother, and I always will be.”
“Being my mother is not the same as being a dictator. You can have your opinion on who I should and should not be with, but it is not your decision. You don’t get a say. Now, I have already told you that Shades is a friend, and we see each other a lot at work. If that’s not good enough for you, then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Be careful, Loretta. Bad boys only want one thing from girls like you, and once they get it, they’ll break your heart.”